Public is warned about lottery scams

OLYMPIA – Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and officials from Washington’s Lottery are bringing the public’s attention to lottery scams. Individuals and groups are calling and emailing victims on a more regular basis with the goal of tricking people into thinking they’ve won a lottery prize.

The goal of lottery scammers is to convince victims to provide personal information or pay fake “processing fees” and “taxes” through a wire transfer or money order. In most cases if the scam is successful the money can’t be recovered due to the fact that parties living...